The One Within
by yeahwhatever
Summary: Beginning when Bella is deserted by best friend Jake, she is determined to win him back. Trying everything she may, she uncovers strange truths about her family tree. Jake's back in the picture, but is that that enough to counteract a seething Edward?
1. Chapter 1

_Strong Bella/Jacob fic. This is my second story. I know, I know – I never finished the first just yet. But now, I got some time on my hands so I'm going ahead with this idea. This has been done, but I want to write one in my own style…_

_I'll only say it once: Don't Own It!_

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><p><em><strong>The One Within<strong>_

_Forest rippling through my peripheral vision. Green branches reaching out to catch me. Pine needles pushing through the rough skin on the balls of my feet. I knew where I was going automatically. My mind told me to run, to run this way. But my head could not decipher what for. I was following a path laid out before me, but where it ended was yet to be figured out. All I could do was run._

_And run._

_Run, faster._

I woke up in a bed of sweat. Beads clinging to my every pore. Dreams like this one had been plaguing me lately. I pushed it to the back of my thoughts as I concentrated once more.

He told me to guess. He told me to remember. Remember stupid stories that he told me he never believed anyway. It had been too easy to soak it all up at the time. I had wanted information, and got it using my only known charm at that point in my life. Flirting, cruelly pinning all his hopes on my heart, which was ever so curious about the pale boy in biology. The same boy who ripped out my heart afterwards and left me here to wallow. But I was done with that. So over it. Jacob was my only hope now. I needed my best friend back.

No, I didn't need him. I could go it alone.

I just wanted him here with me when I did.

Sitting in that book store yesterday for hours was no good. It was that bookstore where I had found information on the cold ones, the family I had come to love thereafter. But nothing could refresh my memory. So I left, the cashier looking pointedly at his tip jar and me looking pointedly at the floor. Defiance was a key trait with people like that. And I was getting better at it by the day.

This new attitude was so good for me. I was becoming bolder, bossier and independent. I don't think I could ever be now what I once was for Edward. I just didn't feel so… so breakable.

So now, here I was, being independent and Googling it. Stupid cold ones stories, why wasn't anything else purging through my thoughts. According to Jacob, I should be remembering a lot more. A lot more about the Quileutes that I couldn't possibly remember now.

He came here the other night, right to my room. It was after him telling me he didn't want to be friends. I hadn't wanted to speak to him, but he did promise he was trying not to break his promise. This was becoming too much for me. Jacob and I had crossed the lines over a normal friendship. Me needing him the way I did, it wasn't good for me. It wasn't good for him either, though. His mind told him I wanted much more than just the sunlight radiating from him.

But holding hands with the sun was divine. Hugging him and breathing again was wondrous the other night. But that was my last gasp of fresh air, now I was doing this alone. I would figure it out, what they all were. Once I know why he can't be my friend, then my new attitude will take over and allow me to forget all this mess.

But then my eye caught on a link, and I followed it. I felt heat surround me as I stared in the eyes of a wolf on the screen. Wow, wolves. How could I forget, the Quileute's descended from wolves. Or that's what the legends said. And now as that day poured back through my mind, the heat enveloping me was beginning to get uncomfortable. My head was mixed with anger, excitement and resentment. I pushed it all aside as I scanned through the old legend once more.

It all came back to me.

We hadn't talked about it since, but I knew he didn't like me being with Edward because of the legends. Billy was a firm believer, but now I realised. If half of that legend was true, then the other half could be too.

Jake was a… a wolf?

But that meant**_ they_** were the bears in the forest. They were the ones killing all of those innocent hikers.

I felt rage build up inside of me. Pulsing at my ears and in the back of my throat. I don't think I have ever been so angry at anyone. Especially not Jake. Not when he was my only friend right now...

But still...

I would kill him_ myself_ if that were true.


	2. Chapter 2

I would kill him _myself_ if that were true.

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><p>'Wolves.' I wondered. I tossed. I turned. Wolves – these were animals – vicious animals killing poor innocent hikers. How could they do this? My bed was too warm. I was thinking too hard. My head felt heavy with this new information. I couldn't even begin to process the whole dynamic of my discovery. How could they even be wolves? They were clearly just a gang of hormonal teenage boys with anger management issues. Jake hated them before and now he is ditching me for this new gang. Or pack? I slapped the pillow beside my head.<p>

I leapt up – with surprisingly a little grace – and opened the window. The cold night immediately came and took up residence in my bedroom. I loved the window being open. But there was a problem. I didn't want it open for fear a wolf might show up. Nothing more sinister at this moment. I am a martyr for things that go bump in the night, but I didn't want Jake to be my friend if he had to fight off the urge to eat me all the time.

Eat me.

Why did everything good in my life just want to eat me? Couldn't I have a normal friend, a normal friend with normal eating tendencies. But what was normal in a world where monsters were real, and all of them surrounding me.

That rage bubbled inside me once again. Heat pulsed at my temples. I rubbed them in a vain attempt at calming myself. This was making me irrationally irate. I was practically foaming at the mouth. Or was that what they did…

Holy crow – I really was thinking too hard. I looked at my bedside clock and sighed realising it was 4 in the morning. I tried to clear my head, breathe in, breathe out, calming thoughts. I continued this pace for a while, I let my mind wander. I did feel relaxed. There was a nice gentle breeze cooling my forehead, soothing my body into a false sense of calm. The heat was overpowering – but that breath tingling over me was heavenly.

_Leaves. Twigs. Roots. Earth._

_My body was so in tune with the earth. I could feel it for miles around. I was a part of this cacophony of life, so disharmonised that it almost made sense. This abundance of growth, growth where I felt at peace. The growth that I had been missing. I was stunted by another._

_My body was leading me again, my thoughts on my surroundings. I was amazed and yet frightened of how I knew my place here. This was home. _

_The whooshing sounds of water were nearby. A waterfall – I just knew this. But it was not my destination, I must continue. _

_My path was incomplete. I must run._

_I heard heavy footfalls coming closer from all sides. I must run faster. I took a backseat and let this inner force guide me. I must leap through this undergrowth and keep to my path. They will not stop me yet._

_Who?_

_The followers. I had followers. This is why I am running. But I feel, somewhere deep inside, that they need me._

_They are lost too._


	3. Chapter 3

_They are lost too._

Strange dreams in the night are a sign of something troubling you, aren't they? I hoped so as I woke up in another puddle of sweat. At least it wasn't screaming – anything was better than that. I was so sure that Charlie was over it, and he had been so worried about me.

Bright morning light was showering me in warmth after my night with the window opened. I gave a quick glance around the room – just checking. All was safe. Leave it to me to think I wouldn't have spotted another creature by now. As it was a sunny day, I supposed it was safe enough to rip myself from my room and try to do something. I mulled over to my dresser and tried to ready myself for the day.

After a longer than necessary shower, I returned to my room, and there I saw it. There it was. What I had looked for this morning. A note on my pillow. Who is leaving me notes while I was in the shower. Charlie's not here and the house is closed up. That stupid window, how had I known it would be trouble? If this is a death note I swear, I'm bolting it.

'_Bells, Still trying not to break my promise, Please come see me when you remember… Jake.'_

Jacobs scrawl jumped out at me, it was almost endearing to see him smudge pen and cross out words even on such a small piece of paper.

But then I remembered: he's a monster.

Rage overtook me again, I held on to the piece of paper tightly as the blood that rushed against my head was unforgiving. I was so mad. I don't think I'd ever felt anger like that. It pulsed around me, pushing into every crevice, it was all-encompassing.

The keys were the first thing that jumped out at me as soon as the painful heat ebbed away. I grabbed them and made my way to the truck. It wasn't hard to focus my mind on the task at hand – just find Jake and kill him.

But could I? Obviously not, but thinking it was a tad malicious, wasn't it? Jacob did have some explaining to do… And I did have that anger thing going on. Maybe a small clatter over the head. No, no. I would not hurt Jacob, I would just think of something when I got there.

If he doesn't eat me - of course.

The greenery that surrounds La Push enveloped the roads as I got nearer to my destination. I saw the red paint of the Blacks house poke out from the trees as I slowed down on the street. My truck rumbled into a stop in front of the porch. There was nobody around.

I barged up to the door. I knocked for at least a solid minute but there was no answer. Billy must not even be home. I slumped down and sat on the creaking steps in front of the house. My anger was abated now, I didn't think if I saw Jake I'd be able to be mad at him. Hopefully he will have an explanation, because that anger did really take it out of me.

A slight clearing of a throat caught my attention not twenty minutes later. I whipped my head hastily around, my poor neck, and there he was.

The monster.

"Bells, you came over. Does this mean…?" Jake looked bigger than even the last time I saw him. He seemed to be growing rapidly, eating humans must be great for growing big and tall. Yuck.

"This, Jacob, means I know how sick you are."

His face slipped from amazement to utter terror in that on sentence. He started to stammer and stutter and then shake.

"I can't help this, Bella. This is who I am; it's a natural thing, the way I was destined to be. I don't love it, but it's my duty now. You must understand that." His voice forced through his shaking.

I backed up on the porch as he stepped closer to me. His shaking grew harder; he was vibrating around the edges. A sharp call came from the tree line behind him, and Sam Uley appeared. Ah, the leader of the dogs. I almost giggled to myself with the hysteria.

"Bella, keep back." Obviously, Sam. "He's not safe now."

I backed up a little more, even though I mostly wanted to defy Sam and his air of arrogance. I most certainly wasn't being eaten today.

"Jake, what are you doing?" I asked, suddenly unsure of my brave plan.

It happened so fast. Jake roared, he looked as if he was in pain. Fur escaped from his every pore and suddenly a horse-sized wolf snarled in front of me. I backed up again, right into the door of the locked house. I scrabbled up the door and almost let out a whimper. The animal snarled again. "Oh, holy crow, don't eat me, please don't eat me…" I was mumbling to myself really, afraid to speak to the monster. Sam must have heard me, as he started to laugh. He strolled over. Strolled.

I watched him, trying not to look at where Jake had been, as he came up the porch to me. The wolf suddenly sat down on his haunches and watched me intently. My breath was coming in sharp pangs from my chest, my mouth opened and closed in fright and shock.

"Bella, I think you don't understand. Jake is harmless, he won't eat you." There was a twinkle in Sam's eye as he spoke. I was unsure of whether to trust him or not. "Jake wouldn't let any harm come to you…" He trailed off, turning to look at the huge animal.

The wolf – Jake – cocked his head to one side and kept watching me. He raised his eyes to Sam's and took off into the forest. Sam watched attentively to where Jake vanished and then made a grunt of approval.

"Come on, Bella. Guess I have some explaining to do…"

I couldn't even bite out the retort I wanted to.


End file.
